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Diet pop may have weight-loss marketing built into its brand names, but that doesn't mean it helps people shed excess pounds, U.S. experts say in a new study published in the Jan. 14 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Overweight and obese adults who drink diet beverages consume more calories from food than obese or overweight adults who drink regular soda or other sugary beverages, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"The results of our study suggest that overweight and obese adults looking to lose or maintain their weight - who have already made the switch from sugary to diet beverages - may need to look carefully at other components of their solid-food diet, particularly sweet snacks, to potentially identify areas for modification," said Sara Bleich, associate professor at the Bloomberg School and lead author of the paper.

Researchers examined data from a population-based survey that ran between 1999 and 2010, and were able to pick out patterns in adult diet beverage consumption and caloric intake by body weight.

Noting that diet pop consumption has spiked from three per cent in 1965 to 20 per cent today, researchers added that their survey revealed individuals who drink diet soda typically have a higher BMI (Body Mass Index) and consume more snack food than those who drink sugary beverages.

Artificial sweeteners, used in high doses in diet soda, are related to greater activation of reward centres in the brain, thus altering how rewards for sweet tastes are processed in people's brains.

In people who drink diet soda, sweet sensors may no longer provide an accurate function of measuring energy consumption because the sweeteners disrupt appetite control.

As a result, consuming diet drinks may result in increased calories from other sources.

The Johns Hopkins survey of research contradicts a Harvard study of 318 obese people from last year that noted diet pop consumption was not linked to overall increases in appetites and food cravings.

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